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On This Day: Fire aboard USS Enterprise kills 27

On January 14, 1969, a series of explosions aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off Hawaii killed 27 men. File Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy

Jan. 14 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1794, Dr. Jesse Bennett of Edom, Va., performed the first successful Caesarean section.

In 1907, an earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, killed more than 1,000 people.

In 1935, a semi-official check of voters in the Saar plebiscite indicated that nearly 80 percent were in favor of reunification with Germany. A victory for Adolf Hitler and Nazism.

In 1943, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opened a 10-day World War II strategy conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

In 1952, NBC’s Today premiered. It was the program that started the morning news show format as it is now known.

In 1953, Josip Broz Tito was chosen president of Yugoslavia. He would serve until May 1980.

President Gerald Ford (L) leans over to chat with Josip Broz Tito, the president of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, during state dinner on August 3, 1975, during his official visit to the country. UPI File Photo

In 1954, Marilyn Monroe married baseball star Joe DiMaggio. The two would divorce less than a year later.

In 1963, George Wallace was inaugurated as the governor of Alabama, promising his followers, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”

In 1969, a series of explosions aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off Hawaii killed 27 men.

In 1993, David Letterman accepted a multimillion-dollar deal to move his late-night talk show to CBS in August after his NBC contract expired.

File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI

In 2005, a U.S. Army reservist, Spc. Charles Graner, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for abusing detainees at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison. Graner, who said he didn’t regret his actions, was released from prison after 6 1/2 years.

In 2007, Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and the judge who approved the 1982 killing of 148 Shiite men and boys were executed by hanging in Baghdad. Saddam was hanged two weeks earlier.

In 2011, anti-government protesters forced the ouster of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

In 2020, Ken Jennings won the Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time competition, taking home a $1 million cash prize. He beat out other record-setting Jeopardy! contestants James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter.

In 2021, former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder pleaded not guilty to two charges related to the Flint water contamination crisis.

File Photo by Molly Riley/UPI

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